Advanced Documentary Filmmaking
Plot End tag Immediately after viewing Abed's documentary, Chang/Kevin exits the study room. He makes sure he is alone, pulls out a cellphone and calls someone. He tells the person on the other end that everyone has believed him and he is waiting further instructions revealing that Jeff was correct and he had been faking the entire time. Recurring themes Continuity *'That just happened': This episode picks up after Chang returned to Greendale a few episodes back in "Alternative History of the German Invasion". *'Replay': This episode is done in the style of a documentary. This is the fourth episode after "Intermediate Documentary Filmmaking", "Documentary Filmmaking: Redux", and "Pillows and Blankets" to be done in this manner. *'History lesson': **Chang's time at school before becoming "Kevin" is gone over by Dean Pelton in the documentary. **Shirley reveals that she was dead for three minutes one time. **After it's learned that Chang was named "Kevin" after Sullivan's dog, Troy realizes he was named after his family's pets as well. **Abed alludes to the fact that he practices smiling and frowning. **It is revealed that Abed's middle name starts with a G. *'Previously': Chang's "relationship" with a mannequin leg from the Season Three episode "Competitive Ecology" is mentioned by Jeff. *'Familiar face': **Dr. Ken Kedan returns in this episode. **Señora Alessandra Chang returns, her last appearance was on the Season One episode "Environmental Science". *'Returning students': Garrett is shown to be helping Abed again in filming another documentary. *'All by myself': Jeff finds himself the only one in the group who believes Chang is faking his "Changnesia". *'Identity crisis' : Chang is facing one of these seemingly having lost all of his memories and insisting others call him Kevin. Jeff also questions himself for not believing in Changnesia, although it's a fake realization. *'A nice gesture': **When Jeff asks what the MacGuffin Institute is, the rest of the study group puts a finger on the side of their nose indicating they are not going to be the one to tell him. **Troy and Annie do high fives as "Partner and Houlihan". **After Britta asks Abed to teach her how to use a camera, Abed points at Britta and says "Pew!" *'School song': Abed gets Jeff to pay for use of the song "You Get What You Give" to use in his documentary. *'School supplies': The Foosball table is seen as Abed films Jeff for his documentary. *'School uniform': Shirley and Chang are wearing uniforms for Shirley's Sandwiches. *'This must be the place': Group Study Room F, Dean Pelton's office, the cafeteria, Shirley's Sandwiches, the lounge and the Campus courtyard are all seen in this episode. *'Middle Eastern Magic 8 Ball': Annie finished the Welcome Archie banner for "Economics of Marine Biology". Running gags *'Biggest laugh of the night': Garrett collapses after using a make shift steady cam. *'Britta'd it': Britta attempts to film Shirley at her shop fail when she ends up hitting the stop button instead of the record button. *Changuage: The pun "Changnesia" is used often in this episode. While working at Shirley's Sandwiches, "Kevin" welcomes Jeff and tells him that the food there is "Kevinly". *'Man crush': Dean tried to hug Jeff and touch his stomach when Jeff went up to give his speech. *'WWBJD': Shirley believes the Lord made Chang the way he is and that being Kevin is a choice. Pop culture references *'IMDb': Abed mentions having sat through "The Tree of Life". *'Use your allusion': **The foundation looking to finance further research into "Changnesia" is called the MacGuffin Group. "MacGuffin" is a storytelling plot device for a goal or motivation for characters in a story. **Abed letting the audience watch him watch the video of an argument is similar to Director Werner Herzog in the documentary "Grizzly Man" in which he listens to the audio from a video of the subject being eaten by a Grizzly bear. He also lets the audience watch him similar to the way Abed did. **Chang/Kevin's checking of notes written on his body to remind him of recent memories is similar to that of Guy Pearce's character in Christopher Nolan movie 'Memento'. In this case, however, the character has good long-term memory but no short-term, while Chang claims to have the opposite. ***This connection is directly alluded to when we see "rent Memento" written on his arm. Meta references *'IRL': When Chang looks at his body-written notes, he says with a surprise "I'm Chinese?!" In real life, Ken Jeong is of Korean-descent. Reception 'Ratings' The episode earned a 1.1 rating/4 share in the 18-49 demo, a series low. In the Live+7 DVR Ratings released earlier this week, "Conventions of Space and Time" rose 0.6 percentage points, from a 1.1 Live plus Same Day to a 1.7, a 55% increase. On the Twitter, #AbedsDocumentary trended as the episode aired in the Central and Eastern time zones and continued to do so for a couple of hours after the episode aired. Quotes Category:Community Episodes Category:Season 4 Episodes Category:Troy and Annie